dracula and frankenstein comparison essay

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Frankenstein & Dracula: Character Similarities and Differences

Frankenstein & Dracula: Character Similarities…

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and Bram Stoker’s Dracula are stories of inhumane beings causing destruction and agony for the main characters until the time of their defeat. These two classic horror stories possess similar character types which contrast in key elements. Each story includes a protagonist, villain, and secondary character. The manner in which these characters participate in and affect the outcome of the story, however, varies greatly.

The protagonists in these notable horrors both fight to defeat the destructive villains. In the story of Frankenstein, the title character Victor Frankenstein studied the sciences at a university in Ingolstadt, and became fascinated with the secret behind the creation of life. Genius, yet foolish at the same time, he unlocked the secret and brought a hideous monster to life – the one who would haunt him forever.

This being was not yet a “monster” per say, but by Frankenstein neglecting his creation, the feelings of abandonment and loneliness developed to become the root causes for its destructive and vengeful nature. Frankenstein suffered the loss of his loved ones at the hand of that which he created. The monster vowed revenge upon Frankenstein who had granted it such a miserable life:

‘Cursed, cursed creator! Why did I live? Why, in that instant, did I not extinguish the spark of existence which you had so wantonly bestowed? I know not; despair had not yet taken possession of me; my feelings were those of rage and revenge’ (Shelley, p. 137).

Had Frankenstein fathered the creature rather than disown it, he may not have endured such hardships. Almost no remorse is felt for Frankenstein because he was the root cause of all of the destruction and deserved to face the consequences.

The protagonist in Dracula, Jonathan Harker, is a character that the readers can actually pity because he did not bring upon any of the agonies he and the other characters faced.

The young and naïve British solicitor was sent to Transylvania to finalize a real estate transaction with one, Count Dracula. Harker quickly felt uneasy about this assignment he had been asked to complete, however, he complied for the sake of his job: “What sort of grim adventure was it on which I had embarked? Was this a customary incident in the life of a solicitor’s clerk sent out to explain the purchase of a London estate to a foreigner?” (Stoker, pp. 24-25).

Harker soon after found himself a prisoner in the Count’s castle, courageously escaped, and subsequently fell ill with brain fever. The audience feels sympathy for this protagonist, who had no involvement in choosing to meet the vampire Dracula and did not anticipate having his friends fall victim to the villain.

The protagonists of Frankenstein and Dracula also differ in the way that they fought the respective villains. Frankenstein, who created the monster in secrecy, could only conquer it in secrecy as well.

He attempted to explain his story to others and gain support, but they simply rendered him ill for speaking of such a being. He thus devoted his life to the defeat of his enemy, abandoning the few family and friends he had left after the past misfortunes: “‘I have but one resource, and I devote myself, either in my life or death, to his destruction” (Shelley, p. 208).

In the end, Frankenstein does not kill his monster but dies while chasing it through the cold of the north. Similarly, at one point in Dracula, Harker is deemed ill for his allegations of Count Dracula being a vampire.

The nurse who cared for him wrote his fiancée Mina saying “He has had some fearful shock – so says our doctor – and in his delirium, his ravings have been dreadful; of wolves and poison and blood; of ghosts and demons; and I fear to say of what” (Stoker, p. 109).

Yet, with Lucy’s peculiar illness marked by two pin-prick points on her neck and reading Harker’s well-kept journal, Mina realized that her fiancé’s ravings of encountering a vampire may actually have been true. Once Harker recovers, he gets Mina and his fellow friends involved and together they defeat Dracula.

Ultimately, both protagonists met well-suited fates – Frankenstein suffered the deaths of others as well as his own for creating his own enemy so secretly, while Harker, completely innocent, encountered the villain by chance and prevailed with the help of others.

The classic novels are parallel due to the fact that each plot revolves around the horror of the villains’ actions and the suspense of what each villain’s destiny holds. Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula had two very different motives for their destructive behaviors.

Frankenstein’s creation referred to as “the monster,” was deserted at the moment life was infused into it. The monster had no knowledge of the world it had been so thoughtlessly brought into and was to discover everything about life on its own. It was created as a “superior being” rather than a monster, but that is what it became after being exposed to the rest of the world.

Instinctively, seeing such a hideous, unearthly being, society did not welcome the monster, as it recalls: “‘The whole village was roused: some fled, some attacked me'” (Shelley, p. 103). The monster was not inherently evil, for it constantly displayed longing to be accepted and to combat loneliness. It attempted to befriend cottagers and even saved a young girl from drowning, yet he was still treated without an ounce of respect.

‘There was none among the myriads of men that existed who would pity or assist me; and should I feel kindness towards my enemies? No; from that moment I declared everlasting war against the species, and more than all, against him who had formed me and sent me forth to this insupportable misery’ (Shelley, pp. 137-138).

The monster’s motive for being destructive, thus, was simply because it had been overcome by constant rejection, without having been given a chance to be accepted. In contrast, Count Dracula in Dracula had completely different reasons for being villainous. Dracula was a monster from the beginning, seeking out the perfect victims for selfish reasons.

The Count would suck the blood from helpless human beings for his rejuvenation, as Jonathan Harker discovered during his stay at the castle: “There lay the Count, but looking if his youth had been half renewed…his mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck” (Stoker, p. 60).

Another of Dracula’s motives was to expand his own kind, known as vampires or the “Un-Dead,” and gradually gain power and dominance. Again, this was observed by Harker:

This was the being I was helping to transfer to London where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst its teeming millions, satiate his lust for blood, and create a new and ever-widening circle of semi-demons to batten on the helpless (Stoker, p. 60).

Count Dracula, contrary to Frankenstein’s monster, is a true villain who receives no pity from the readers for his clearly selfish objectives. The stories of Frankenstein and Dracula both include secondary characters, who happen to be female as well as the lovers of the protagonists.

Frankenstein’s fiancée, Elizabeth Lavenza, embodied the novel’s motif of passive women as she waited patiently for Victor’s attention. Throughout the novel, she kept her distance from Frankenstein and his work and hardly got involved when he showed signs of stress and illness.

Knowing nothing, she wondered if she may have been the cause of her fiancé’s grief: “Do you not love another?…I love you…But it is your happiness I desire as well as my own when I declare to you that our marriage would render me eternally miserable unless it were the dictate of your own free choice” (Shelley, p. 194).

Frankenstein never confided in Elizabeth about the monster, so she remained ignorant of the perilous situation she was in.

Nearing the end of the story on the wedding night, Elizabeth helplessly fell victim to the monster. In Dracula, however, Jonathan Harker’s fiancée and soon after wife, Mina, was a completely different character. When she found that Harker’s departure was unusually lengthy, she did not simply consider that he found another woman, as Elizabeth had in Frankenstein.

She expressed her concern for the well-being of her lover and at the instant of knowing he was ill, she was by his side. She showed great involvement in her fiancée’s life and appreciated that the men were trying to protect her, but she was adamant that she assist in the obliteration of Dracula: “it did not seem to be good that they should brave danger and, perhaps, lessen their safety…through the care of me” (Stoker, p. 248).

Mina was selfless, intelligent, and resourceful, and after being victimized by the count, she used her connection with Dracula to lead the men to his hideout. The count was captured and killed, saving Mina from transforming into a vampire and saving the rest of the world from possible danger. Mina can be considered a heroine, being so strong, knowing, and helpful in such a situation not meant for female involvement, taking place in the Victorian times.

Elizabeth Lavenza and Mina Murray, both secondary characters, had two very different roles in each story and met two very different fates. Therefore, the stories of Frankenstein and Dracula have separate plots, though they both include similar character types.

Protagonists Victor Frankenstein and Jonathan Harker both strive to conquer villains, yet the first dies a lonely death, and the latter lives on. Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula both cause irreparable damage but have quite dissimilar motives for their behaviors.

Finally, Elizabeth Lavenza and Mina Murray participate throughout each respective novel in different ways, though both being secondary female characters with alike relations to the protagonists. These classic horrors illustrate how having common characters does not necessarily denote having common plots.

Works Cited Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, Inc., 1988. Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Toronto: Penguin Books Canada Ltd., 1965.

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Author: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

Compare and contrast the presentation of monsters in Bram Stokers Dracula and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein.

Compare and contrast the presentation of monsters in Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein .

The concept of a monster is subject to literary interpretation – werewolves, vampires and manmade abominations all hold the label of monster, and yet a monster can also be a normal-looking person, but with the internal thoughts and warped consciousness such a creature would be considered to possess. Count Dracula cannot be considered to be anything but a monster – he feeds upon the blood of mortals to survive, and plans to wreak a similar havoc upon London and its ‘teeming millions’. But can the creation of Victor Frankenstein really be called a monster? Or this time, is it the creator that is deserving of such a title?

Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster both evoke within the reader certain aspects of repulsion and horror. The Count’s face is described as ‘aquiline’ and ‘rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth’. His ears are described as ‘pale, and at the tops extremely pointed’, and the nails on his hands were ‘long and fine, and cut to a sharp point’. All of these references hold connotations of an animal, or more specifically, a predator, and therefore while Dracula seems human in appearance, the reader feels threatened by the rather deceptive way in which the Count elicits fear – outwardly, there is nothing to be frightened of. But still, there remains an underlying level of horror, which is alluded to frequently, such as when Dracula is said to have an ‘extraordinary pallor’ which makes the reader feel uneasy as the sight could resemble something akin to a corpse. Another is when the Count touches Harker, and the solicitor describes ‘a horrible feeling of nausea’ coming over him. The reader empathises with Harker as they too can almost imagine the feeling of cold sickliness emanating from Dracula, which again adds credence to the deceptive and covert nature of the fear Dracula evokes.

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In contrast to the appearance of the Count, it is interesting to note that the terror of Frankenstein’s monster is only skin-deep, and that the creature’s actual appearance is based heavily on Frankenstein’s bias and the reader’s own imagination. Although the reader is given some glimpses of the monster’s features – ‘his hair was of a lustrous black, and flowing; his teeth of a pearly whiteness’ and ‘his watery eyes, that seemed almost of the same colour as the dun white sockets in which they were set’ much of the monster’s description comes from the sensationalism of Frankenstein’s language, and ironically, isn’t very (physically) descriptive: ‘Oh! no mortal could support the horror of that countenance. A mummy again endued with animation could not be so hideous as that wretch’. There are no real specifics as to what Frankenstein’s monster actually looks like, and as a result, the details are left to the reader’s own interpretation, which is constantly influenced by the excessive words of Victor Frankenstein. He states that the monster possesses an ‘unearthly ugliness’, and calls him a ‘vile insect’ and a ‘devil’, which immediately colours him as something heretic and evil in the eyes of the reader. Yet, earlier on in the chapter, the monster is described as having ‘bounded over the crevices in the ice’. Although it is likely that the word ‘bounded’ is supposed to relate to the creature’s size and lumbering movements, it nonetheless holds connotations of a playful dog running to its owner, or perhaps of a young, carefree child. This gives the reader a small insight into the monster’s innocent and gentle persona, and coincidentally, we feel pity for the monster as we suddenly begin to realise his abandonment and sadness at the hands of Dr. Frankenstein – ‘I, the miserable and the abandoned, am an abortion, to be spurned at, and kicked, and trampled on’.

However, there are some similarities between the presentations of both monsters. Taken from Mary Shelley’s Author’s Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frankenstein, Shelley says that ‘I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together’ and how she saw her prototype of Victor Frankenstein working on ‘some powerful engine’. This can be compared to when Dracula grabs Harker’s arm in a ‘grip of steel’, as both suggest a strong idea manmade creation, which only adds to the unnaturalness of both monsters.

In both novels there are constant and reoccurring motifs that somehow link both of the monsters to concepts of the Christian religion. For instance, Count Dracula sleeps in the vicinity of an ancient, ruined chapel. In this and in many other ways, the Count represents a perversion of Christian belief – his diet of blood shockingly parallels the Christian Eucharist, in which believers drink and eat the blood and body of Jesus Christ. In many ways, Dracula perversely parallels Christ himself: like Christ, he has died and been reborn, but his resurrection is a blasphemy, and a manifestation of evil rather then a miracle. While Christ sheds his blood so that others might have eternal life, Dracula drinks the blood of others so that he himself might live eternally: ‘on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran down over the chin and neck’. His immortality is a mockery of life; he is not truly immortal but ‘undead’, a term that Stoker himself used. However, although Dracula can be seen as a mockery of Christ, the symbol of Christianity uncovers a weakness within him – ‘his hand touched the string of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe that it was ever there’.

For the creation of Frankenstein, she uses motifs of Christianity to compare to his relationship with his creator. Through the use of his eloquent language he alludes to John Milton’s Paradise Lost, one of the books the monster reads while living in the peasants’ hovel. He entreats Frankenstein to ‘remember, that I am thy creature: I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel’. By comparing Victor to God, the reader empathises with the monster’s plight in the face of how Frankenstein neglected to care for his creation. Another reference to Milton’s poem is when the monster quotes the lines of the title page, when Adam laments his fallen position: ‘Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay/To mould me Man, did I solicit thee/From darkness to promote me? ’ Like Adam, the monster is shunned by his creator, though he strives to be good.

Although both Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s creation are intended to be their respective novels’ primary antagonists and classic representations of monsters within literature, neither of the characters are simple creatures of fathomless good or evil. They are both portrayed as having the capacity to possess human feelings and emotions, though it is needless to say that their motivations and perspectives are ultimately different. For instance, in Chapter III, when the count discusses with Harker ‘the crowded streets of your mighty London’, we sense that he lusts for conquest and power: ‘I long . . . to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is. But alas!’ In light of this declaration, Dracula becomes more then just a monster of unfathomable evil. Rather, he can be seen as a somewhat sympathetic and more human creation, albeit one with a lust for power and vengeance.

A reader can also understand and empathise with the confusion as it is seen in Frankenstein’ monster. Although Frankenstein feels only hatred for his creation, through the eloquence of his speech, the monster shows himself to possess a remarkably gentle and sensitive nature. Even the death of his creator offers the monster only bittersweet relief – joy, because Frankenstein caused him so much pain and suffering, and sadness because Frankenstein is the only person with whom he has had any sort of relationship: ‘I had feelings of affection, and they were requited by detestation and scorn’. The reader can empathise with the monster’s feeling towards his creator, as it perhaps resembles something akin to a relationship between a father and his son, albeit to a far more extreme degree.

In conclusion, there are both interesting similarities and stark differences between the presentation of Frankenstein’s monster and Count Dracula – both are used to elicit feelings of fear and repulsion, one, through the method of quiet, brooding menace and coldly calculating evil, while the other uses loud and obvious imagery to challenge and frighten the reader by rendering a grotesque spectacle of physical difference. Both monsters are also used to represent and mock certain figures in the religion of Christianity, a theory that is both credible and possible, given the time and context in which both novels were written, perhaps to inspire and dissuade a God-fearing public from going against the tenets of Christianity. But perhaps the most interesting theme that links the novels together is the conflict between nature versus nurture – Dracula is a wholly evil creature; yes, an evil creature with a warped sense of ‘justice’, but an evil creature nonetheless. But can the same really be said for the creation of Victor Frankenstein, who is torn between vengefulness and compassion for his creator? The reader feels nothing but abject repulsion and horror towards Dracula, but for the creation of Dr. Frankenstein, we are more likely to feel pity – pity for what has been lost and what could have been, and perhaps even pity for what should never have been at all.

Compare and contrast the presentation of monsters in Bram Stokers Dracula and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein.

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Comparison of the Main Characters in Dracula and Frankenstein

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Topic: Dracula , Frankenstein , Protagonist

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Frankenstein & Dracula: Character Similarities and Differences

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Author: William Anderson (Schoolworkhelper Editorial Team)

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Compare and contrast the presentation of monsters in Bram Stokers Dracula and Mary Shelleys Frankenstein.

This is a preview of the whole essay

Document Details

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Comparison of the Main Characters in Dracula and Frankenstein

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